Evening summary

Theresa May has suffered two big defeats in the House of Lords on her flagship Brexit legislation, the EU withdrawal bill, in a move that will embolden MPs who want to force her to keep the UK in the customs union. She lost by a majority of 123 on an amendment forcing ministers to explore the option of staying in the customs union and by a majority of 97 on an amendment limiting the ability of ministers to use secondary legislation to water down existing EU rights when those rights get transferred to UK law. (See 3.38pm.) The second defeat was largely technical, and the Brexit department implied the first one did not really matter because it would not stop the UK leaving the customs union anyway. (See 6.11pm.) But there are five more days of report stage debate in the House of Lords and tonight’s voting figures suggest that Brexitsceptic peers in the Lords will turn out in large numbers to inflict several more defeats on the government, not all of which will easily be overturned in the Commons given the slenderness of the Tory/DUP majority. The votes will also encourage the pro-European Tories who are trying to win a Commons majority for future customs union amendments which would be more binding on the government. (See 6.40pm.)

Lady Hayter says the government amendments mentioned by Lord Callanan do not do what he says they will do. Some EU directives are not covered by the government’s amendments. She says she has had three lawyers look at this, and all three told her that the government amendments were not robust enough.

She says her amendment is better because it would ensure only primary legislation could be used to remove current EU rights in key areas.

You can read the full text of the amendment here (pdf). It is amendment 11.

In the Lords Lord Callanan is responding on behalf of the government. He says the government has already tabled amendments to the bill that would stop the EU withdrawal bill being used to water down existing EU rights.

Jeremy Corbyn is to meet New Zealand premier Jacinda Ardern - the emerging star of the international Left - for talks this weekend. The Labour leader will host Ardern after she returns from a retreat at Windsor Castle with her fellow Commonwealth heads of government.

During the New Zealand election campaign last year, the 37-year-old politician was portrayed as the saviour of the beleaguered left in the wake of the Brexit vote and the election of Donald Trump. At the time Corbyn declared: “Do it for all of us” in a video of support.

After an event on gender equality at City Hall today, Ardern told the Guardian that she planned to share how the New Zealand Labour party had managed a “reset” at the 2007 election after many years in opposition. She said:

We spent nine difficult years in opposition, we went through multiple leaders. We managed a reset at the last election. We spoke to the issues that I know New Zealand was concerned about: job security, decent health services, education, wages that weren’t moving relative to the cost of living.

However, asked what advice she could give Corbyn about pushing his party across the line to power, she said she would be “very wary” about telling other political parties what to do, when hers had only been in power for less than a year. “I’m always happy to share about our experience but it would always be different to another nation’s and another party’s,” she said.